Garth Ward – Problem (2009.10.03)

Video Transcript:

In Michigan, we have an industry that’s trying to get started in wind. They want to start building wind products in Michigan. We’ve got incentives to bring companies from outside of Michigan, into Michigan, to do this. And we’ve even got incentives for the homeowners to get a tax write off for implementing these. The main roadblock here is that local government and township will not allow you to put these up. They will not allow you to hook them up.

So we’ve got the technology. We’ve got the affordability. We’ve got the reliability. We’ve got the governor behind us in the state of Michigan, but evidently, no one let zoning know that we’re going to be doing this. So this is something across the state. We have 1,242 different zoning districts, and no 2 of them have the same verbiage on wind. I see that as a problem.